Stupid Giants lose stupid game in stupid fashion

2 9 4

Before you complain about umpires, before you complain about bad calls, look at those numbers.

2
The number of runs scored against a pitcher with a 5.38 ERA. The number of runs scored against the team who had allowed exactly 200 more runs than the Giants coming into the game. Oh, there are park effects, sure. The Rockies still have a team ERA+ of 85, easily the worst in the league. This was one of the worst starters in the worst rotation in the league. Two runs.

9
Nine hits! Say, that's great. Nine hits. The Giants are now 42-18 when they get nine hits or more this season. They're 20-12 at home with nine hits. Nine hits sure seems like a lot.

4
Four errors. You idiots.

Those numbers are the story of the game. There's always a rush after an annoying loss to christen a game the "MOST ANNOYING LOSS OF THE YEAR" or some such, and I'm as guilty as anyone. This is a contender, though. This is a strong contender. Just look at the inning that won the game for the Rockies:

• Error, runner on first
• Infield dribbler single, runner to third on error
• Balk, lead runner scores, back runner to second
• Chopper single off the plate, runner to third
• Sac fly

I reference the baseball gods far too much because it's easy. It's the writerly way of making a wanking motion when talking about bad luck. But if you don't think something's up when you look at that sequence -- from the Rockies in AT&T Park, no less -- then you're in a different place than I am. That's baseball telling us to go home. That's baseball telling us the Giants are going to be awful for the next 50 years. The Rockies have scored an average of nope runs in the history of AT&T Park, yet they win on two errors, two infield singles, a balk, and a sac fly?

Quite possibly the most annoying loss of the year, after all. Consider the following:

Doug Eddings

Buster Posey was called out on a 2-2 pitch that made him throw up his hands like Leslie Nielsen was behind the plate. It was an instant, honest reaction. And, lookie here, it wasn't that close:

The part that bugs the most is that it wasn't a particularly well-framed ball. It was jerked up at the last second because, well, Michael McKenry had nothing else to do with it.

Wait, no, the part that bugs the most is that Wilin Rosario wasn't behind the plate in the first place, catching the ball with his shoe and running back to the backstop looking for his shoe.

Earlier in the game, Eddings and Jake Peavy got into a scrape, but to be fair, there's a chance that Eddings was in the right, there. Still, the Posey strike was a garbage call at the worst time.

Posey was just going to ground out to short, anyway.

Errors

Both of the errors looked like they happened because a catcher was playing first base, but let's all rosterbate about Posey at third base for the next six years, regardless of whether we have any clue if he's good in the infield or not.

Jeremy Affeldt had a brilliant shutdown inning

Good for him! That was well-timed.

Michael Morse's triple

Right after the errordribblererrorbalksacfly inning, Michael Morse roped a clean triple with one out. The Giants couldn't get him home.

The Giants lose about two to five games every year when they have both a triple and a home run. It's pretty rare. They did it against the Rockies on Monday night, though. The last time they did it was yesterday.

Jake Peavy

Say, that was a fantastic start! Good pitching! Sorry about the errors, infield hits, and balk. You'll get 'em next time, by which we mean never, because this season is crumbling, crumbling, crumbling into ash.

(Still in line for a playoff spot!)

(What a stupid year.)

LaTroy Hawkins

Literally 60 years old and literally the crappy reliever the Giants traded an expired top prospect for, just so Hawkins could be crappy in a crappy season. He's still here, still closing games, a decade after Jesse Foppert or Kurt Ainsworth appeared in a major league game. And Jerome Williams is still around today, for some reason.

As long as he's closing for the Rockies, I will take personal offense to every game he saves against the Giants.

Joe Panik's at-bat in the ninth inning

It was rock opera. It was transcendent. It was a tough, seven-pitch at-bat with the game on the line, and the rookie took the impossible pitches and fouled off the tough pitches. Then, when he got a pitch down the middle, he annihilated it. Boom. Game tied, runner in scoring position.

Except it went straight to the right fielder.

The Rockies

After the Rockies swept the Giants at AT&T Park after an industrial accident of bullpen failures, they went 3-23 on the road. Literally 3-23 on the road. That's impossible. That's an accounting trick. That's one of the worst stretches in history by any team, in any situation.

Then they came to San Francisco, where they normally drown, and won the game on two errors, two infield singles, a balk, a sac fly, and some weird umpiring.

See? See what I'm talking about? This was a stupid game. A horrible message from above, the Amityville Horror voice telling you to get out.

Get out.

Get out. Run. Don't come back to contending house again.

Stupid game.